Referring to FIG. 1, a block diagram of communication between an application and a plurality of address book programs. Typically, the application (e.g., word processor program, e-mail program and the like) is running on a client device and each address book program is provided by a corresponding server. The application includes a server dependent application programming interface (server dependent API) for each address book. Each server dependent API 125, 135, 145 enables the application 105 to access a corresponding address book program 120, 130, 140.
Currently, there is no common interface to access address book programs on different servers, such as Sun Microsystems' SunOne, Microsoft's Exchange, Lotus' Notes, and/or the like. If a new address book program is to be accessed by the application, the programming code of the application needs to be modified to add a corresponding new server dependent API.